Souths retain Charity Shield after entertaining draw

The Charity Shield will remain with the South Sydney Rabbitohs, after they clawed back a 12-point deficit to draw the game against the St George Illawarra Dragons.

With the game finishing 12-all, consisting of a total of 51 players across both sides and astonishingly, 10 referees, the game had entertaining moments.

The game was riddled with errors with neither side able to hold onto the ball but the big talking point was the potential Josh Dugan injury.

Whilst Dugan says he is fine to go and play in the Dragons next trial match, the club will have him undergo scans to confirm everything is fine, after he hyper-extended his knee trying to avoid a team-mate.

Additionally, the Dragons suffered another injury, with forward Will Matthews injuring the metacarpal in his right hand.

Despite all that, Dragons coach Paul McGregor believes that Dugan should be good to go and that the fullback was keen to stay on despite the injury.

“Josh hyperextended his knee. He tells me he is okay to go to England but weâ€™ll see on Monday when he gets the scan,” McGregor said.

“I think heâ€™s okay. He wanted to play on which is a really positive sign but you never know really until you get that scan.

“He obviously hyperextended it pretty bad.”

With 10 referees being trialled for the clash, they came under scrutiny from the get-go, when none were able to accurately determine whether Mitch Rein was short of the line.

The Dragons burst out of the blocks after tries to Benji Marshall – slicing through the Bunnies defence – and Charly Runciman – receiving a ball from Eto Nabuli, who was suspended in mid-air – but it was not to be for them.

Instead, Souths clawed their way back through a bulldozing try to Chris Grevsmuhl and a run-away try for Sam Manuleleua.

The win gave Souths their third trophy in recent times, adding to their NRL Premiership and NRL Auckland Nines victories.

With a lot of young players being tested and put through their paces, Souths coach Michael Maguire was pleased with the way his side played.

“A lot of lessons is one thing we got out of the game, but to see a lot of our young kids and have a bit of a run and show a bit of character was probably the biggest thing we got out of tonight,” Maguire said.

As for the Dragons, coach McGregor was also pleased with the performance of his younger players.

“It was a good opportunity to give them their first taste of NRL football and I thought we came through it well,” he said.

“To only let that amount of points in against Souths, I know it’s a trial and I understand that, there were some positive signs there for sure.”